Art Collector, Cookbook Author Sophie Leavitt

Sophie Leavitt, an author of cookbooks and a collector of contemporary art who contributed works to several museums throughout the country, died Tuesday in her home in Palm Beach, Fla. She was 86.

Mrs. Leavitt died of natural causes, said officials for Levitt-Weinstein Memorial Chapels of West Palm Beach, Fla.

Mrs. Leavitt and her husband, Boris, both lifelong collectors of art, lent many pieces from their substantial collection for temporary or permanent exhibition. The loans went to such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the Addison Museum in Andover, Mass., the Washington Museum in Hagerstown, Md., and the Norton Gallery of Art in West Palm Beach.

Jack Coward, curator of the 20th Century collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, said that during the last decade the Leavitts had contributed more than 30 works, most of them abstract expressionist paintings, to the gallery`s East Building.

Mrs. Leavitt and her husband were co-founders of the direct-marketing retail division of the Horn and Hardart Co.

Mrs. Leavitt also was an accomplished cook and published several cookbooks, including Sophie Leavitt`s Penny Pinchers Cookbook, published in 1971.

The book contained many recipes Mrs. Leavitt had devised from her volunteer work showing migrant families in Florida and Pennsylvania how to prepare nutritious and tasty meals. Her work earned her commendations from the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs and the Nixon administration, which invited her to attend the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health.